People and Places

Catholic schools pride themselves in offering a quality learning experience, both in and out of the classroom.

For one week this summer, high school students from St. Joseph Parish’s youth group, Warriors of the Word, got an opportunity to broaden their horizons by taking a field trip rather far afield — to the Central American nation of Belize, where they built a house for a family on the outskirts of the capital city.

After visiting the Philippines for the first time in 2010, Bardstown resident Pat Blanford was taken aback by the extreme poverty in which the kind and humble Filipino people lived.

“It’s a beautiful country as a whole,” he said, but the citizens suffer with a corrupt government and a minimal middle class. “Either you’re filthy rich or filthy poor. And you’ll see it, even in the big cities.”

Voting for the contest is open to the public until 11:59 p.m. on Friday. The winner of the contest will receive $2,500 in credit to outfit his or her crew. To vote for Charles and his crew, visit www.cintas.com/toughcrew.

Early Friday was one of those mornings that make it easy to understand where mankind came up with the concept of God.

The Central Kentucky area had been ravaged by record snowfall. Roads were still treacherous, vehicles scattered in the ditches. Some of us had made it to work the day before through great effort. Others were still homebound.

Mother Nature had put us through a lot over the past couple of weeks. It was March, the time we start to dream of spring and look for the first color to return to the drab gray and brown winter countryside.